Service before self
by KSKSoldat
Summary: Oh man....sorry about the formatting guys....somethings wrong with the uploader so when I upload it in RFT format it comes us with a bunch of HTML crap, and I cant edit it other wise :
1. The Beginning

In the Beginning...

16 miles outside of Beijing, China...

"Why is it that we always get stuck with the night shift Yao?" asked Mi Liao Zhing, of his comrade in arms and superior in the Chinese army, Yao Hwak-do, "We always get the night shift because we are reliable in the scientists eyes, we should be honored that we have been given the task of guarding the project whilst the others sleep." replied Yao with a slight hint of annoyance in his voice, as the two men walked down the white corridor in the center of the Military Reasearch institute outside of Beijing, the building was, nodescript to say the least, only two or three stories tall, with no windows affording a veiw to the inside, and a single main entrance, in the form of a huge loading dock, where multiple unmarked army trucks, looking more like freighters than military vehicles, sat, unused for the longet time. To any outside viewer it would look just like a warehouse, where a company might place, clothes, toys, or even guns in a gun companys case, but to an outside observer, it would seem a strange place to have a warehouse, in the middle of nowhere, only thing is, when they see the soldiers patrolling the perimiter of the building, they dont usually get out to tell others.

So, anyway, back to Yao and Mi, as they were walking their route, Mi asked Yao "What exactly is this project Yao? I was never told, and i would like to know!" Yao looked at Mi gravely, "If you were not told, you are not supposed to know, so do not ask!" Mi snapped his head forward at this reprisal and shut up for the rest of the night, that is, until they heard a scream of pain, a gunshot, and a serise of groans eminating from the Operation Room at the end of the hall Yao and Mi were walking down, "What was that?" whispered Mi, "Quiet, stay next to me" whispered Yao in reply as he raised his AK-74 and switched off of "safe". Mi followed suit, and the two men moved to the double doors that marked the entrance to the Operations room. As the two men approached the doors, a horrible smell, something like rotting flesh and horse shit, greeted the men, as Yao pinched his nose, he opened the door, and a grisly scene was arrayed in front of him, Mi vomited when he saw it, bodies strewn on the ground, a blood-stained carpet and walls, viscera strewn about, and the clicher to all this was the fact that there were about 6 men, all clad in rags, with as pale skin as a dead Chinaman can get, various wounds covered them, mostly gunshots, but one was missing its left arm, were feasting on the flesh of the freshly slain Chinese soldiers.

As Yao and Mi were standing, gaping at the carnage in front of them, one of the men, "creatures," you would call them, that was feasting on the corpses noticed that there was fresh meat standing at the doorway, so it rose and stumbled toward the Yao and Mi, now, being good soldiers, they asked the man to stop, had they not done that, the other five creatures wouldnt have noticed them i suppose, well, anyway, they told the first creature to stop, and as the was told to stop, it didnt stop, so the other five got up from their meals, and advanced towards the two Chinamen standing at the doorway, so panicking, Mi fired a burst of gunfire from his rifle into the nearest creature, all the rounds hit, but the creature, unfazed, kept advancing. Right, so now we are at the point were we can call these, "creatures," zombies, cuz we all know zombies dont friggin die when you shoot them in the chest, only head shots do that. So, back to Yao and Mi, by this time they were firing point-blank into the small group of zombies, to no avail, they were quickly overtaken and devoured just as the Chinamen in the Ops room were getting up, as zombies. Well, needless to say, in China, the press isnt allowed to report on military incidents of any sort, for the sake of secrecy. So, this is the beginning of the end of the world I suppose... 


	2. Information

2 months later...

Weisbaden, Germany

"In todays international news, massive riots have broken out in China this week, with the police and military responding to the riots, the international community has expressed concern as to how the Chinese government is handling the riots..." the TV continued in the background of Erwin Neiss' life, as he continued to cook is breakfast, when he sat down to his breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes, the news had begun broadcasting the current stock prices througout Europe. Erwin grabbed the remote and changed the channel to something in Russian, he couldnt understand most of it, just bits and peices of the conversation were really getting into his head. After breakfast, Erwin grabbed his car keys and went outside so he could get his morning paper and see if the day was anygood for hunting or shooting, as it turns out, the day would be perfect for his paper, and his shooting, as it was clear, sunny, and beginning to get hot sedpite the fact that it was only 7am. After a few moments of enjoying himself outside in the sun, he went back inside, showered, and got dressed for his work, jumped in his car an sped away from his house, heading towards his job as a soldier of Germany, towards his destiny.

"Feldwebel Neiss! Wait up!" yelled Franz Juschkat, an Unteroffizer (corporal) in the same unit as Neiss and one of his best friends, as he was running toward Neiss, who was on his way to a mission planning meeting with Oberst (Colonel) Johannes Platz, "wait up man, why the hell are you in such a hurry?" panted Juschkat as he neared Neiss. "Oh, well the Oberst asked me to meet with him and the Platoon leaders for some reason," said Feldwebel (Sergeant) Neiss, smiling as he saw his friend, who tho skinny as a stick, wasnt as fit as he should be, "so, what're you doing here Juschkat, come to annoy me as you usually do?" Panting as he stopped, Juschkat replied, "No, just to give you a letter Feldwebel, it came from the states, so I cant read the damn thing," said Jushckat as he handed Neiss a letter. Neiss pocketed the letter for later, thanked his friend and told him to get the squad together and meet him in the mess hall in an hour or so. When Neiss entered the room all the men fell silent, "I apologize for being late Oberst, Juschkat had to give me a letter." said Neiss as he snapped to attention. "Sit Neiss, this is a grave matter, and we need an enlisted mans opinion on this." Oberst Platz gesetured towards a chair near the end of the table.

"Here is the situation men," continued Platz, apparently Neiss had accidentally interrupted, "the riots in China are the thing we are here for, these riots are not ordinary, soccer-game-riots, otherwise the Chinese police could handle it, the one thing that rises concern in myself and the rest of Military High Command is the fact that entire villages and small cities have been blockaded by th Chinese army, they are not allowing anything in or out of those blockaded cities, and they have asked us not to get pictures from our spy satellites, and though we have complied, we still get pictures from our allies, the US, UK, and Russia have all shown us and each other these pictures," Oberst Platz pointed to a screen in the back of the long room with a remote, the pictures, though fuzzy clearly showed tanks firing into what seemed to be disorganized mobs of civilians at point-blank range. A Luftwaffe (airforce) officer stood asked "What the hell is this? Why are the Chinese killing civvies?" Oberst Platz replied, "That is what I would like to know Oberst Anton, but we have no idea of knowing, the Chinese are keeping tight-lipped about this," Platz turned to Neiss, "Neiss, what do you think?" Neiss sat for a moment, and thought for that time, then said "Show the rest of the slides please, i would like to see more of their actions" Platz had a look of disbeleif on his face, "You want to see MORE, why is that Feldwebel?" "I would like to see the extent of these actions before I geuss as to why the Chinese are doing this, is all mein Commandant." "Very well," said Platz. The slides were essentially all the same as the first the saw, mainly tanks blasting large crowds of civilians with their cannons, some slides with infantry firing into crowds, but one caught Neiss' eye, it was a slide of a platoon of Chinese infantry being overrun by another mob of civilians, it seemed as though the civilians were proceeding to tear apart the platoon, literally limb from limb, another slide showed a tank firing in a group of civilians AND Chinese soldiers, thats when Neiss made up his mind, "Oberst, I really have no idea as to the reason why the Chinese army is attacking its own cities and citizens, but i beleive it is dire, if they are firing on their own troops as well, I beleive this would have to be serious." Platz looked at Neiss for a moment as if considering wether or not to kill Neiss on the spot, then he said quietly "Alright Neiss, your presence is no longer needed, you are dissmissed." Neiss rose and saluted the Oberst as well as the entire cadre of officers in the room and left, without a word.

In the mess hall Neiss was greeted by his fellow soldiers and friends, "So, whats going on in there Neiss? you get in trouble for your little fiasco the other night?" asked Deiter Meier, one of the men of the squads machine gun team, with a hearty smile "Oh shut up Meier, noone knows about that, but someone will if you dont shut your grinning mouth man!" said Neiss as he sat down, Meier just laughed it off, knowing that Neiss was joking around. Then Caroline Schmidt, the squads medic asked "So, whats going on then Neiss? I woke up an hour early because Juschkat came to my barracks and told me to get here because you had something to say." she said, grumpily, Schmidt and Neiss didnt get along so well, simply because Neiss turned her down when she asked him for a date three months earlier. Neiss began relating his story to the rest of his squad, telling them of how there were tanks and infantry attacking civilians, and how the army was blockading many small citys and villages thoughout China, and he told them of the slide in which he saw the Chinese platoon being ripped apart by the crowd of civilians. At the end, Hans Hess, the other man in the machine gun team for the squad piped up, "Hell, maybe its zombies or something!" he laughed. The rest of the squad thought it was funny and they all had a good laugh about it. "Ah, its prolly just some crazies running around, escaped from a mental asylum or something like that." said Neiss. They all parted ways after that and went about their business, not knowing how terribly right Hess had been. 


	3. Gettin worried

1 week after the meeting.  
Weisbaden, Germany

There was a knocking on Feldwebel Neiss' window in his bedroom, startling him from his dreams. Neiss reached under his pillow and grabbed his American-made .45 caliber pistol, it was hard to find ammunition for it in Germany, as most German pistols used 9x19mm ammunition. Neiss rose from his bed, half naked and shivering from the cold night that had snuck in through the cracks in his windowsills, as he raised his pistol and slipped the safety off, he could hear Franz Juschkat's voice coming from outside, "Erwin, Erwin! Wake up! Let me in dammit! Its cold out tonight!" Neiss let out a sigh of releif, lay his pistol down and pulled on some pants and put on his belt and pistol holster. Neiss had been wearing his pisol all the time since a woman and her family were savagely murdered by their neighbor, the husband had gone missing shortly after being admitted to the hospital for what was described by the news as, "various bites, possibly from the children, in defense of themselves," Niess found that hard to beleive, the children, and wife, were found, shot at point-blank range by a pistol that was later found to be the husbands pistol. As Neiss opened the door, he realized that Jushckat had brought more than just himself, he had also brought Hess, Schmidt, and Meier with him. "Franz, why the hell are these three here?" asked Neiss as the other three pushed their way in, "Well, theyre bored and so am I, so we dropped by our favorite Feldwebels house," replied Franz with a grin, Neiss sighed and said, "Fine, make yourselves at home, I'll get out some Schnapps and beer."

As Neiss sat down after handing out beer to his comrades, Hess turned on the news, "Look at this Erwin, its all over, theres been more deaths like those a few days ago." said Hess, "Yes, and it seems as if theyre getting more frequent as well," added Schmidt, "Im concerned that riots may start soon, because of the rationing." Neiss thought about that for a moment, and remembered the ration laws had just gone into pass today, since China had closed its borders and stopped trade to the rest of the world. As the night passed on, Hess and Meier fell asleep in the living room while watching an American move called, "Bad Boys," on the television, though none of the people watching it (Hess, Neiss, Schmidt, Meier, and Juschkat) could understand the dialouge, all of them understood the guns and shooting. Juschkat decided he liked Neiss' house better than his own, and went, more like stumbled, into the guest room and collapsed on the bed in there, and fell asleep. Neiss and Schmidt stayed up for about an hour after everyone else, and talked, mostly about Meiers marital problems, his wife was cheating on him and Meier knew it, but he hadnt confronted his wife, Patricia, about her affair yet, and he had fallen into a deep drinking binge, going to the bars on base every night after he was dissmissed from his duties by Neiss. Often Neiss would go with Deiter on his drinking nights, just to keep him out of trouble, because, next to Juschkat, Deiter Meier was his oldest and best friend, they had known each other since their first day of basic training, they had been through all of it, Neiss Juschkat, and Meier, they had been through Afghanistan, and the final days of the Iraq war, as part of the new German security force helping the limping US forces there, after the German army found, attacked and virtually destroyed many major insurgent strongholds throughout Iraq, the insugents stopped attacking, they knew after the attack on An-Nasariah by the Germans, that though they followed all the major rules of war, like not killing innocents, that the German soldiers, espescially the infantry, were ruthless fighters, not taking survivors, and giving no quarter to the enemy. So brought about the end of terrorism in Iraq, and the realization by Germany of being able to stretch its military muscle.

As the time approached 3am, Schmidt asked Neiss to walk her home, he obliged and grabbed his coat, and extra pistol ammunition. "Do you always have to have that thing dear?" asked Schmidt in a slurred voice, she was drunk, Neiss could tell, he could smell the alchohol on her breath. "Yes i do Caroline, it is a matter of safety," relpied Neiss, "you drank too much, i think you should call a friend to stay with you, I dont need a squad member dying from drowing in her own vomit." "Ah, Erwin, I cant, all my girlfriends are out of town, or too busy with their boyfriends to come and watch me for the night, couldnt you watch me?" "Damn," Erwin thought, "she drunk, I dont need her death on my head, but she is Caroline Schmidt, so, damn!" "Fine, I'll stay the night, but no funny business, OK?" said Neiss with a sigh. As Schmidt heard this she hugged Neiss aroud the neck and let out a yip of joy, drunken joy, but joy nontheless.

As Neiss and Schmidt were walking to her house, something caught Neiss' eye, it was off to the left, about 10 or 20 meters, and looked like a person was laying on the ground. As Neiss stopped to turn and get a better look, he saw the person move, he, or she, seemed injured, Neiss intstructed Schmidt to stay put and wait for him, he jogged over to the person and saw the who it was, and the extent of the injuries. The person was a man, about 25 with short hair and glasses, his nose was bloody, and there seemed to be a chunk missing from it, as he looked the man over, he saw he was an American soldier, possibly an officer judging from the lack of chevrons, or stripes, on his collar. When Neiss got to his abdomen and lower body, he felt like throwing up, the mans stomach area was a mass of blood and organ, seemingly ripped open by something, and he had bites all over his legs and arms. On closer inspection, the chunk from his nose was a bullet hole, could have been from a pistol, probably 9mm, and at close range, when Neiss turned him over, the back of his head was largely intact, aside from the obvious bullet hole.

When Neiss looked up, he saw them, three of them, dressed like the man Neiss was inspecting a moment ago, but different, they were shuffling, he thought they were drunk, but when they stepped into the light, he saw a scene right out of a zombie movie, one had a chunk of flesh ripped from his face, exposing a grisly mask of muscle and bone. Another was missing part of its neck and abdomen, but the wounds werent bleeding. The last one, a black man, was ok aside from the various bite marks and bullet holes adorning his body. Neiss tried stepped back, and drew his pistol, he yelled, "Achtung! Halt oder ich schießen!" in English this means "Attention! Stop or I shoot!" the three men simply kept shuffling toward him. Neiss then repeated his message, in english, the persons didnt respond, so he decided to turn and leave, rather than face a charge of murder in the German military courts, when he turned he was face to face with Schmidt, who was in the process of reaching out to grab him, she got ahold of his blouse (yeah, i know, but thats what the military calls the camoflauge over-shirt things the soldiers wear with their name-tape and that stuff on it), as she pulled him in, he noticed she was going for his neck, he pushed her away and saw that she had changed, her face was pale, deathly pale, the eyes were vacant, staring, and just plain creepy to Neiss, he then saw it, she was missing a chunk of her left breast, and there was no bleedig, none at all. Thats when Neiss decided it was too weird for him, she should have been dead, and on the ground, but she wasnt, and she was trying to bite him again. He pushed her away, raised his pistol and fired 3 .45 caliber slugs into her chest, her back exploded in a shower of blood and bone, but she didnt go down, he fired another 2 shots into her chest, she just got back up, then, he fired 1 round into her head, at the close range, her face was gone, obliterated by the .45 slug. Neiss turned to see the three men from earlier not three feet away, he fired his remaining rounds into the nearest one, it fell and didnt get back up, but he was out of ammo, and, somehow, surrounded by the creatures, as they fell on him, he screamed, and blacked out.

Neiss awoke fromhis terrifying dream to find himself on the couch in Schmidt's living room, he was sweating and looked terrified, "Are you okay Erwin, you dont look so good." asked Caroline. "Im fine, just a bad dream is all," replied Neiss, rubbing his head, "so, whats for breakfast?" "Nothing for you, you asshole, you walked me home then stayed! Uninvited!" replied Schmidt, "so get the hell out of my house before I call base security!" Neiss sat, with a look of shock on his face, but after a few moments, he collected himself and left, walking back on the sidewalk to his home, as he approached, he saw Franz outside collecting his Neiss' mail, while wearing Neiss' bathrobe. "Franz! Franz Juschkat!" called Neiss, "I see you have made yourself quite at home, hope you have not drank all of my Jaeger." "Ah, well, you see," sumbled Franz, looking for a proper excuse. "Its fine Franz, you know you are always welcome in my home, but I do not beleive you are welcome in my bathrobe." said Neiss with a sly grin, and as quick as he could, he snatched the bathrobe off of Juschkat, leaving him naked in the morning sun, then Neiss grabbed a stiff twig from his yard waste container, and smacked Juschkat in the behind with it, herding him towards his home. As Erwin and Franz got to the door, Hess and Meier, hearing the cries of pain coming from outside, went to the door, and burst out laughing when they saw Franz being smacked in the ass by Neiss, and Franz screaming in between hits, "I swear, if you werent my friend I would sue you!" By that time Hess and Meier were red in the face from all their laughing, and as Franz ran inside Erwins house, they were bowled over by him, but they just continued to laugh on the floor. "Oh, you two think this is funny?" asked Neiss as he walked in, he thawcked them both with the twig, "now thats funny!" Neiss just laughed at the look on the two mens faces when they realized what had just happened, "Ow, what was that for Erwin?" asked Hess, rubbing his arm. "Yeah, it was funny, so we laughed." added Meier, rubbing his head. "It was funny, but not nearly as funny as when I gave Oberst Platz the pies filled with laxative, eh" replied Neiss as he stepped over the two men and proceeded to cook breakfast for the four of them.

After breakfast, there was nothing much to do for the four men, Neiss, Juschkat, Meier, and Hess, so they all decided to sit and watch the TV for a spell, the news was very uninteresting, mostly just reports on the major riots that had begun to spring up all over the US, Mexico, and now parts of Russia, and many European countries, seemingly these riots were getting closer to home, "I sure as hell hope these riots dont hit Frankfurt, or Munich, then we would probably be deployed to them, and we all know I hate the large cities," said Neiss, all the others grunted in agreement. As the day wore on, the time was becoming nearer for them to have to go to their duty station for the day, the entirity of Neiss' squad would be there, all on guard duty at the western gate of the base. At 1500 hours, Neiss drove himself, Hess, Juschkat, and Meier to the Armory so they could gather their equipment for yet another boring day at the gates. 


	4. Arrival

The eastern gate was manned by Feldwebel Heinrich Lepkowski, they called in to the radio net command and reported, "All clear"  
and the radio net once again went quiet. Neiss had begun to fall asleep, as the combination of the summer days heat, and the equipment he wore made him extremely hot, and even though he didnt even have his helmet on (it was strapped to his pack lying nearby), Neiss was burning. Planes and helicopters had begun their daily flights over Neiss' position when the guard in the tower to his left yelled,  
"Alarm! Vehicles approaching"  
normally this wouldnt be a cause for alarm, as vehicles from France and Britain often came through here on their way into the interior of Germany, but these vehilces were coming fast, and in the lead were two-and-a-half ton trucks that the British Army used to transport troops, quickly and cheaply. Neiss noticed this after he grabbed his mini-binoculars from his side pack. Neiss called to his squad to form up near him,

"Okay, it looks as if we will be having some trouble, Juschkat, Vielwerth, you two stay with me, the rest of you need to take up overwatch postions and set up two MG3's in the towers and the ramparts, if I give the signal" and Neiss waved his hand in a cicuar motion above his head, "or you think were in trouble down there, open fire, got it"  
Each squad member had their assignment, they all dispersed, while Neiss, Juschkat, and Vielwerth took up their positions near the gates.

Neiss had no idea who the hell these people were, maybe French ultranationalists, conducting another terror raid on German border guards. the Gefreiter (Private first class) in the guard tower that had sounded the alarm earlier was now yelling in Dutch, English, French, German, and even Spanish for the vehicles to stop, but they just kept coming, after a few moments, the Gefreiter radioed base HQ and requested heavy support, what they got was more than they needed, a Leopard 3 tank rolled to through the gates after Neiss had opened them, "If this doesnt stop them, then nothing will," thought Neiss grimly as he saw the metal behemoth roll into a postion so that the attackers had to fire on the slanted right side of the tank if they kept coming the way they were, thus making cover for Neiss and his two men at the gates, and blocking the gates as well. As the moments passed, Neiss could only think about the mass rioting and evacuatons of England, at least the major cities, and the anouncement that the new Euro-bridge, as well as any other bridges connecting the British Isles to mainland Europe, were to be bombed by the RAF as to stop the spread of "criminally insane persons" as they were called by the newscaster Erwin had been listening to that morning. So Neiss, Juschkat, Vielwerth, and the rest of the squad waited for the coming fight.

This particular convoy had come off of the Euro bridge moments before the RAF had bombed it to prevent the spread of the, "rioters," as they had been called, among other things. Keri, Michchele, and Katie had been visiting London on an exchange trip through their university when they had been picked up by Marines from the American embassy in downtown London. They were then placed in the care of a convoy of British army vehicles, and civilian vehicles that was going to be leaving for Germany. The ragtag convoy had been moving for days now, only stopping occasionally only yo refuel and use the restrooms, they had only been through a few small towns, and noone asked questions about the convoy or why they were heading to Germany. The border guards had not been at their posts, luckily, otherwise the column of vehicles wouldnt have gotten through. Keri had been dozing off when Michele tapped her on the shoulder,  
"Can you hear anything"  
Keri listened for a moment, at first she heard nothing but the din of Katies cars engine running, as usual, but then she listned harder, and could hear it, faint at first, but louder as they went farther down the highway, "Halt! You are entering a restricted military area! Halt or you will be shot!" then the message went into a different language, presumably it was the same, then Keri said,  
"yeah, I can hear it alright," she turned to Katie, who was driving next to her, "I think we should pull over and stop Katie" Katie said nothing to this, but she pulled over just the same.

The first of the vehicles came into veiw, it was a 2-and-a-half ton truck, with British army markings adorning its hood, the back was uncovered, leaving only the half-rings that would have acted as a frame for thr canvas covering, there were men in the back of the truck, most had on military uniforms, but others had on civilian clothes from the looks of it. Neiss couldnt tell how many were in the truck, but they had guns. The dry hiss and pop of bullets flying by Neiss told him the first shots were fired, and as more trucks came, Neiss knew that a fight was to be had. Erwin Neiss, Franz Juschkat, and Erich Vielwerth all rose thei HK G36 rifles in perfect unison and returned fire, the fight was only beginning though. 


	5. Intel

As the amount of fire coming from the trucks leading the convoy intensified, Neiss Juschkat and Veilwerth had to take cover on the opposite side of the tank.

"Feldwebel, do you have any idea as to what the hell is happening here!" asked Juschkat as he reloaded his G36,

"No idea Franz, but I think its time we stopped screwing around." Erwin peeks around the front of the tank and notices the trucks have stopped and people were bailing out and taking up positions around the road.

"Looks like they're going to try and out shoot us." Erwin raises his arm to Deiter up in the nearest tower and makes the signal to open up with the machineguns. Just as soon as that happened, the roar or gunfire erupted from the towers, and a solid wall of bullets tore apart the lead trucks, causing one to explode and leaving a flaming hunk of metal in the road. Soon all the trucks were either destroyed completely or driven off the road. The machineguns were devastatingly efficient in their killing, and when the tank fired its main gun into a ditch that had a few of the rouge shooters in it, Erwin yelled.

"CEASE FIRE!" All was quiet for a few moments and slowly, the rouge shooter came out of the ditches with their hands up, some wounded. All covered in dirt and dust from the massive explosion that rocked the area from the tanks main gun. Erwin, Juschkat and Veilwerth hopped onto the tank and rode it the 120 meters to the bulk of the shooters. When they got there Erwin saw many of them were civilians, torn and bleeding, women and children as well as men. There were a few soldiers in the gaggle, but Neiss still felt a pang of guilt for hurting innocents, that wasn't his job.

"How many of you are there?" Asked Erwin as he jumped down from the tank and kept his rifle at the ready.

"Only 40 of us now…." Replied a man in his early 40's sourly. Erwin shook his head and radioed for some trucks to come and pick up their new guests.

"Erwin! Behind-" yelled Franz as his eyes went wide and he raised his rifle, Erwin whipped around and saw a woman, with a crazed look in her eyes raise a pistol and scream something at him. Erwin didn't hesitate, he raised his rifle and put three shots into the woman's chest. All was silent, except for a child crying behind him.

Base interior; 3 hours later.

"So you expect me to believe that crap right?" asked Oberfeldwebel Michael Katz.

"Yes! I'm not lying, I swear to it! I know what I saw, and those people were attacking and killing other people!" replied Katie, "why the hell would I lie about something like that!"

"I don't know, but I plan to find out. I'll be right back." Katz said as he rose, "would you like something from the mess hall? Water perhaps?" Katie simply shook her head in silence. Erwin was on the other side of the one way mirror looking into the small interrogation room, thinking about how insane the woman's story was, and how it might possibly be true..

"Erwin, what do you think of this?" asked Oberst Platz as he shut off the tape recorder in the room.

"Sir, rightly I don't know what to think, there isn't much that makes me think this is all crap. I mean, they did blow up EUROBRIDGE didn't they?" Platz nodded

"Ja, they did. No one really knows why though. The British haven't been too talkative as of late."

"This might be the reason why then. I mean, think about it, if there was something that was causing this then wouldn't it make sense to try and contain it?" Erwin asked heavily, "and what about the satellite photos we saw earlier? Odd occurrences aren't they?" Platz nodded agreement and raised his cup of coffee to his lips. Blowing on it he takes a sip and says,

"Jumping to conclusions won't help us here Erwin. I'll have to review the interrogation transcripts." Erwin simply shakes his head.

"What of those wounded persons we got from the cars in the rear of the convoy? They have humanoid bite marks it looked like. That confirms her story."

"Erwin, we have had enough discussion here, go back to your squad bay and debrief you troops. Tell them we are on full alert. Also, your squad is on night watch on the north wall." Platz say as he opens the door for Erwin and waves him out.

Base debriefing room, 19:45 hours

Erwin wrapped up the debriefing with the bad news, rather than his usual happy note of 'Well done troops'

"We have night watch tonight, north wall." There was a collective groan from the squad, and Deiter spoke up.

"Come on dammit! We just got out of a combat situation, its 48 hours rest minimum" Erwin shakes his head and says, with a hint of annoyance in his voice,

"Unless we get orders from High Command, and the base is on high alert. In this case, both are true." Again a collective groan from the squad, "Alright peoples, go get some sleep, meet me at the armory at 23:00 for refit" Erwin then rose from his seat and opened the door for all the troops to file out. After all the troops left, Erwin plopped down on the long couch in the back of the room and flipped on the TV.

"Today is a grim day for the British Isles, the body count is in the hundreds of thousands, troop stations have either been completely overrun or cut off from communications. All airlines, boats, cruises, and highway travel has been halted completely in order to keep the outbreak of this madness from spreading anywhere else." Erwin frowned was unsure of what was happening, he was about to change the channel when his cell phone rang, grumbling, Erwin fished it out of his pocket and flipped it open.

"Hallo?" Erwin asked irritated

"Neiss, its Heckner from intelligence, Oberst Platz would like to see you immediately." The voice was slightly panicked and Erwin was about to ask what was wrong, but the line went dead before he could open his mouth.

"Shit." was the only thought Erwin had as he went to the Intelligence building.


	6. Mid level hell

As Erwin approached the squat grey two story building that housed the intelligence detachment for the base, he wondered what might have been so important to pull him off his R&R time. He fished in his trousers for his Militarausweis as he came to the main double doors at the front of the building. Erwin had just gotten it out when the door buzzed open without him having to even show his I.D. Erwin raised and eyebrow. As if reading his mind the security guard said,

"I'm supposed to let anyone with Feldwebel tabs in, so no need for I.D. right now."

Erwin simply nodded and walked in though the open double doors and headed down a hallway marked 'Operation Hauptquartieren.' The few times Erwin was allowed into the Intel center, it had been alive with the hum of computer banks, and it was quite hot from the monitors running 24/7. However this time it was alive with a buzz, it felt like desperation, Erwin had felt it when he was fighting in Afghanistan sometimes, and the heat was oppressive and like a weight on his chest heavy enough to make breathing difficult. The air stank of sweat and cigarettes, the normal smell when something's going on that kicks people into high gear. Officers and Intel soldiers were rushing about trying to quell this nest of confusion, but Erwin wasn't there long before Heckner found him and said,

"Good of you to join us here in the Operations Center Feldwebel Neiss, if you'll follow me I will take you to the briefing room where everyone else is."

"Everyone else? Who all exactly is here right now?" Erwin asked quizzically,

"Well, I would say every single commander type in the battalion all the way down to squad leaders, you will be the last man to arrive I believe."

Heckner replied as they closed in on a large room that looked like a Chairman's meeting room in a corporate building, all windows and no walls, so it afforded Erwin a look into the room.

What he had been told was truth, all the commander types were in there, even the leaders for the helicopter and Panzer units attached to the Battalion.

"Shit, you weren't kidding when you said ALL the leaders were here were you Heckner." Erwin said almost wondrously.

"I

never joke around Feldwebel" Heckner replied coldly as he opened the sliding door for Erwin and beckoned him inside. Erwin entered the room and took a seat near the back in a comfortable looking swivel chair and nodded to Oberst Platz. He nodded back and then the Oberst launched right away into his briefing;

"Gentlemen, as of yesterday at 13:25 hours local time the countries that make up the U.K. have declared a full state of emergency. After attempting to mass evacuate all major cities into the countryside and military installations, the EUROBRIDGE was destroyed without the consent of ANY E.U. nation. As you all also know Germany is no longer a part of the E.U., which means that we, unlike the rest of Europe, will commit resources to recovery of assets in the U.K. and further evacuations of civilians to German territory. The reason why we are the only nation in mainland Europe other than Ukraine and Russia to do this is because the E.U. has declared sanctions on the U.K. for destroying the EUROBRIDGE. These sanctions are not backed by force of arms though so we should have no troubles for now. As of late, the causes for the declaration of this state of total emergency have not been known. It is thought that an outbreak of some kind of mutagenic virus has occurred. Similar incidents involving this virus have also occurred in China, India and Japan. This virus is no ordinary virus though, it seems to kill the infected and revive them, as impossible as that may sound. No heartbeat, respiration or regeneration as well as no apparent feeling and nervous response to pain. So thus, the infected are tough, if not impossible to kill. The origin of this virus is unknown, however that is of no consequence at this time. What DOES matter is that the U.K. is the first mass infection zone to be reported. In short, we will be going to the U.K. with their government in exile's blessings to recover our assets first and foremost, as well as evacuate any remaining civilians back here to Germany for the time being. Any questions?"

The Oberst finished his speech by placing his hands on the table and leaning over his hands some, looking to the faces of the soldiers in the room. A Feldwebel by the name of Noor raised his hand and asked,

"MOPP level sir?"

"The infection seems to be passed through bodily fluid transmission, so technically MOPP-0, however I am requiring ski-mask type face coverings with shooting glasses and light gloves. Anything else?"

the Oberst looked about again, his eyes roving for raised hands, Erwin raised his and asked,

"Rules of Engagement?"

"Its simple, the infected are essentially dead, they seem to be murderous…if you are confronted, you have permission to use lethal force. Cities are free fire zones essentially. Also you will have FULL support, artillery, helicopters, airstrikes, everything. High Command doesn't want anyone dying on this mission, so they are taking no chances."

The Oberst finished again and looked over the room,

"If that is all, you are dismissed, duties as usual for tonight, OPORDS will be issued in the morning at platoon bays"

The Oberst turned as the scrape of chairs and the shuffle of feet filled the room and the soldiers left. Erwin was almost last out and noticed the Oberst talking to a heavyset older Intel officer in hushed tones, and from the looks on their faces, Erwin could tell it wasn't good, not good at all. He just knew something was going to go wrong. No, he was certain of it.


	7. Less than exciting

Written by Erwin:

Saturday, October 21, 2006

23:03:05

"It is most disconcerting..."

"This isn't something you would expect a Mechanized company to do..."

"Wonder when were leaving?"

Snatches of conversation were all Erwin could catch while he sat in the NCO club, along with about 25 other NCOs, varying from Unteroffizere's to Hauptstabfeldwebel. Erwin ordered another drink and listened more closely to the conversations going on all around him.

"I don't suppose there is much we can really do is there?" Said an Unteroffizer to a Stabfeldwebel who replied

"Other than get our gear and guns ready, no." The conversation went on for a few more minutes, but Erwin lost interest in it as he was tapped on the shoulder, and Oberfeldwebel Heinrich Mannlicher, an old friend of his, sat down and said,

"You looked pretty grim in there Erwin, something bothering you?" Erwin looked down and his drink and then took another swig, the acrid taste of the beer washing away the coppery feeling of doubt in his mouth and said

"Full support options? For a flipping humanitarian mission? There has to be something more than these little infected peoples to worry about."

"I suppose so," said Mannlicher, "however we have never had to bail an E.U. nation out before now have we?" Erwin again looked back at his drink, nodding in assent, but still half knowing that SOMETHING wasn't being told to them.

"I guess your right" is all Erwin said to Mannlichers reply, and he went back to his drink, puzzling over all the possibilities for mayhem in his near future.

A few moments later Erwin had bid farewell to Mannlicher and his people, and headed back to the armory, checking his watch, Erwin thought he would be late for the meeting with the unit who had night watch. The sun was beginning to set, and ever Erwin thought for a moment on how beautiful it was, it reminded him of... The U.S. The town he lived in so many years ago, he wondered how all the friends he had made there were doing. Erwin then remembered the letter Franz had brought him the day before, and fished around for it, but with no luck. Shrugging it off, Erwin arrived at the armory of the base along with about 16 other people, mostly coming from different directions than he.

"Where are Johannes, Morrison, Alzman, and Hest?" Inquired to a young Gefreiter by the name of Jordansson. She just shook her head and told him,

"My apologies Feldwebel, but I have not heard from any of them since earlier this morning at the mess hall." She then turned back to the people she was talking to; Erwin shook his head and decided not to reprimand her yet for the sign of disrespect. Then, turning around he found himself face to face with the newest recruit he knew of on base, a French immigrant by the name of Jacques Joachim, who said,

"Neiss, do you plan on letting us into the armory to retrieve our equipment?" Erwin narrowed his eyes and took on a dangerous tone that he did with ALL new recruits who did such as Joachim did.

"Soldat Joachim, to you I am FELDWEBEL Neiss, not simply Neiss. I am not your equal, in terms of grade and experience I am SUPERIOR, so you shall treat me as such. Is that understood?" Joachim thought for a moment, nodded, and muttered an apology under his breath.

Pushing past all of the soldiers in his way, Neiss opened the armory doors using his key, and after the last 'volunteer' was in the main room, shut it behind him and began towards the gun locker. There a muffled pistol shot come from nearby.

Drawing his .45, Erwin made his way towards the gun locker storage room in a weaver stance, his pistol drawn up close to him as to not, 'flag,' or give away his position by having the barrel of his gun sticking around a corner. There was a tap on his shoulder and Obergefreiter Errin Mainz was behind him, giving the signal for a dynamic corner rounding. Nodding, Erwin got into a crouch and waited for the squeeze that would signal him to pop around the corner with his pistol at the ready, while Mainz came up behind him, using his back as a leg brace, her pistol up as well.

The squeeze came, Neiss and Mainz popped around the corner into the room with the gun locker's in it. Doing a quick visual scan, Erwin saw that the room was empty, however there was a gun safe opened, and forcefully it seemed. Erwin rose to a crouch-walk and moved into the room, covering the doorway and moving along the wall left of the doorway he entered, while Mainz moved opposite him. Another gunshot popped out of the silence, Neiss and Mainz dropped to the ground, both expecting another shot, this time with the sound of the accompanying pop of it passing overhead, but there was none, only the hum of the AC in the room. The rest of the troops rushed in, hearing the words,

"All clear," emanate from some ones mouth in the other room, they immediately grabbed their rifles and vests, donned their helmets, and without being asked, stacked up for a room entry. There was another pop, and a bullet ripped into the concrete near Erwin, ripping a hole in the wooden double doors that led into the next room. Then, not even a few seconds later, the entry team burst in, yelling with all their might,

"Troffen die waffe! SCHNELL! TROFFEN EST!" There was something-indistinct yelled in English, a pistol shot, and then the roar of four G36 rifles filled the armory. Erwin already knew whoever it was in there was dead, torn apart by the gunfire, he still had to make sure the English speaker was truly dead though.

The first thing he noticed was the strong smell of alcohol, and an upturned bottle of cognac, a lit cigarette in the ashtray, and a human finger. Looking further down, he saw Alzmans body, head obliterated by something, most likely the pistol the man who had just died held. Just as expected, there was another man, this one almost literally full of bullet holes, body still twitching some from excess electrical impulses. His torso was a bloody mass of human pulp; pulsing and jittering like jello. Looking at his boots and pants though, Erwin could tell it was a British soldier, the prisoner they might have been looking for earlier. Looking back at Alzman, Erwin saw his left ring finger was gone, chopped or bitten off, the ring still attached to the nub left. Shaking his head, Erwin picked up the phone, slick with brain matter and blood, with a rag he found in the desk near the center of the room, and called a meat wagon to clean this mess up. He still had a patrol to do.

All was silent as the troops filed out and the ambulance EMT's rushed in, he was down 8 men now, the four missing and the four who had to stay because they shot the man in the room.

"Alright, you all already have patrol team assignments, so lets hop to it. Team 1: north wall, team 2: south wall, team 3: east wall, team 4: west wall. Radio in every 15 minutes with status reports. Anything else comes up, deal with it at your discretion." Then, without waiting for a question to be asked, he took his team and headed for the west wall.


	8. The Wailing wall

Later that same night….

Western wall.

'FELDWEBEL!" Came the cry from one of the soldiers he had with him, Sagenstein, a small Bavarian man with more than a few lines of war on his face, "FELDWEBEL! We have a group of people coming to the gates!" Erwin ran as fast as he could in all his gear to take a look.  
"Where man? I cant see shit, its too dark" Erwin replied breathlessly as he stopped by Sagensteins side, at his the Bavarian yanked his NOD out of the MOLLE pouch on his vest and handed them to the Feldwebel, saying "Out there, about 150 meters" while pointing into the darkness, the Feldwebel raised the NOD to his eyes, flicked it on. Instantly his vision was tinted green, but everything was clear as day, and there they were, about 20 of them, stumbling towards the base slowly, drunkenly. Erwin handed the NOD back to Sagenstein, gripped his radio and called into command center,  
"This is Ground unit Foxtrot-2, requesting additional personnel on my location, Wailing wall gate." the crackling of static filled the headset Erwin wore on his unhelmeted head. Then te reply call,  
"Rodger Foxtrot-2, additional force en route."

A few moments later, the entire base sprung to life as the general alarm klaxon sounded, rousing the entire population of the base. The sound was a shrill one, the wailing of a thousand banshees, was one way an especially poetic conscript put it one night. Erwin felt a slight sensation at his back and turned around to find that the entire bases lights were on, every single one. From there things only got louder. The revving of vehicle engines was soon heard coming from the motor pool. The whine of turbofans from helicopter gunships attached to the battalion kicked in too. The march of feet as 2nd, 3rd, and 4th platoons all in full combat loadout and marching in perfect ripple formation advanced to the ramps leading up to the parapets of the walls and broke formation at a cry from the platoon leaders, to take up positions on the wall. "What the fu-" Sagensteins words were cut off by the roaring of the nearly invisible Tiger attack helicopters buzzing overhead. Erwin again turned around towards the road leading to their gate, and could barely make out the Tiger's against the night sky, despite all the light at his back. Crackle on his radio and another message came on his cross-comms, "Orders are to remain on standby, weapons hot against the wall you are positioned at until further notice." "Shit Sagenstein…this must be bad if were going defensive" shouted Erwin over the roar of approaching A.P.C.s and tanks.  
"I don't think we would use this much force otherwise against 20 drunken seeming civilians, just makes no sense to me is all Erwin." replied Sagenstein, hefting his specialty PSG1 from his back and placing it up on the lip of the wall and sighted downrange. Erwin just shrugged and placed his G36 up on the lip of the wall as well, and waited for more orders.

Minutes that crept by like hours went by, the constant buzz of static in the headsets of the soldiers was becoming increasingly annoying. Some soldiers took their headsets off, others just turned down the squelch or volume. The hum of vehicle engines and choking exhaust fumes turned the once cool and quiet night into a hot, stifling dark prison of inaction. After what seemed an eternity another radio message came on the comm-net, "All units stand down, sit and relax, but do not leave assigned stations." Many soldiers just stood there, rigid, knowing that there was something more wrong than was being let on. Others took their rifles down and sat with their backs on the wall, while still others stood around and smoked and talked. Erwin sat down for a moment and smoked, thinking about the situation. Sagenstein stood there, loose in a sense. His eye glued to the scope of his PSG-1. Vehicles engines shut off, and crews opened their hatches and poked fun at the infantry. The mood was light, and the nights silence began to return. Everyone began to relax into a state of half sleep like most soldiers do on night duty, when the night sky shattered into bullets and rockets coming from the helicopters that were still buzzing about the sky. The sound of the miniguns ripped apart the silence with a terrify roar as the helicopters did their gun run over road. Then the, 'FWOOSH' and sound of tearing air, ending in the ear splitting crack and roar of the rockets exploding. As the attack helicopters passed overhead shooting their guns, the tinkling of spent shells hitting the ground made the sound of rain pattering off of a tin roof. Every soldier sprang back to their positions, tense, ready, muscles aching to pull the trigger, let off some of the tension. As rounds impacted, there were brilliant flashes of flame from the HE 15mm rounds that were being fired from above. The picture was clear, the helicopters were annihilating the civilians, the stumbling ones.

The fireworks spectacle ended shortly after the first few passes, with all rockets spent, all minigun ammo used up, the helicopters headed back and landed at the helipads. Each infantryman was tense, waiting for new orders. Seconds passed, nothing.  
Minutes passed, nothing but static.  
Hours later, just as the sun was coming up, there was a slight reprieve when the headsets crackled to life and the familiar female voice came.  
"All units form up into platoon column-file formations and prepare to march to inspect attack site" 


End file.
